Gotham Nights
by BeckNCall
Summary: After Lois goes to egypt Clark goes to Gotham City for a story.


This fits into season 10 between episode 2 and 3 and is how I think Clark and Bruce would first meet in Smallville.

**Smallville**

**Gotham Knights.**

**By BekkNCall**

Clark Kent looked around the office of the Daily Planet where he was working. It was a quiet morning and everyone moved busily with the work of putting the next edition of the Daily Planet out for the afternoon readers. He was missing Lois, a reporter friend of his that he was very fond of.

Clark rested his chin on his hands, elbows on his desk as he stared at her empty desk while counting the seconds as they passed. His time with Lois was precious to him and he didn't want to miss any of it.

Then with a horrible start, he remembered why she wasn't here. She was in Africa with Perry White. He had arranged for her to go so she would be safe after all the trouble with Zod and his soldiers last year. It hadn't been a good time for either of them, but she loved him or he thought she did, and he loved her more than he had ever loved Lana.

Clark's reporter boss came into the office, looking around and seeing Clark. "Kent!" he yelled. "You're going to Gotham City."

"Why, Chief?" Clark asked as he stood up and grabbed his bag.

"Because we have heard there is some really bad crime going on there. Murders with people who have gang ties. All people are finding is a big bat spray-painted on the wall near the bodies. Find out who's doing it!"

Clark smouldered with his eyes narrowing for a moment before he nodded. "Right, Chief. I'll be there soon."

* * *

Clark flew into Gotham City and left the airport looking around for anyone suspicious. But this was Gotham City, the darkest city on the East Coast and the buildings looked dilapidated and run down. There was rubbish in the streets and people dressed up heavily in furred coats and scarves, keeping their heads down. They were scared, Clark could tell. He'd seen some scared people in his time.

He wanted to catch a taxi and go to a hotel first but he decided to walk around and get the feel of the town. The bricks looked dirty even and unlike Metropolis City there were no street music or politeness. People just kept walking and didn't talk except very quickly to one another. Again Clark felt they were scared.

There was a scream nearby and Clark didn't hesitate to run fast to where he heard the scream from – it was an alleyway between two buildings. The far end was blocked off and there were huge dumpsters full of trash. Two gangsters from the Minelli family were threatening a woman, and Clark stepped forward, but his super-sense stopped him from moving forward and he looked up in time to see someone drop from above.

The person, because he could have been male or female, dropped on one of the gangsters, and the other turned with a laugh and pointed his gun at the newcomer and laughed.

The new arrival said, "Put the gun down. Only cowards fight with guns."

"Then I am a coward!" the Minelli enforcer said and pulled the trigger. Clark wanted to run forward but again his super-sense told him something else was about to happen, and he waited, narrowing his eyes to see every small detail.

The new arrival's voice was gravelly like Clint Eastwood's, and Clark realised it was a man but probably not a very old man. The young man snapped his hand out with something in his hand and smashed it into the man's trigger finger, forcing the gun up a little and firing over the young man's shoulder.

There were people behind him! This had to be why Clark was standing in the alleyway, he realised and he grabbed the bullet from the air. He heard with his super-hearing that the young man kicked the other in the family jewels and then a whoosh of air. Clark turned back at super-speed to see the young man fly up into the night.

"I wish I could fly..." Clark thought before he jumped up, bouncing off the walls of the alleyway to go upwards. He reached the roof, to see the man with the black leather trench coat stop and turn back to face him. Clark realised he was no older than himself and he back a black shirt on with a white symbol on it that looked familiar.

"You're fast," the young man said. "Almost as fast as that kid who ran through here a while ago." He pulled something from his belt and held it up. It looked like a bat – the animal – and Clark realised that it looked like the symbol on his chest. "Don't get in my way!" He threw it at Clark but it spun around Clark's head and headed down into the alleyway. Clark say it explode and paint splash out on the walls in the shape of a bat.

When Clark turned back, the man was gone. He rushed to the edge in time to see – nothing. The man was gone. Crowds of people below moved without seeing a man in black running around or swinging over the rooftops.

Clark heard something in the alleyway behind him. A woman screams again and he rushed back to the lip of the building to see the two gangsters laughing hard and then dying. Clark pursed his lips as he considered the scene. Then the woman started laughing and died as well. She had a big smile on her face. He heard sirens, and saw police running into the alleyway with their guns drawn looking around wildly. "Look!" one said and pointed to the bat-symbol on the wall. "It's the Bat-man!"

"There he is!" another yelled pointing at Clark. He was lucky his face was in shadow and stepped back from the edge. Where could he go? He could hear the police entering the building below, so Clark took a run and jumped from the edge of the building across the street behind him. His super-hearing heard a noise in the far background that sounded like someone laughing. He quickly escaped the police and got back to the street, coming back to the alley with a digital recorder in his hand.

"Officer!" Clark called above the police tape now blocking the alley. "Do you have any comment about the murders?"

"What murders?" one of the police officers came over to talk to Clark suspiciously. "There are no murders in Gotham."

"There are three dead people in the alley," Clark confirmed with a nod of his head where he could see ambulance paramedics putting the bodies in body bags. "That looks like murder to me. Was it," what had they said? "A Bat-man?"

The policeman laughed. "You think someone was bitten by a radioactive bat? Is that it?"

"No, I..."

"Because that is the stupidest thing I have ever heard!" The police man laughed some more. "These people died happy."

"How can you tell?"

"Because they have a smile on their face. People who are murdered don't have smiles."

Clark walked away.

* * *

He walked to his hotel, and as he entered, a young woman tripped slightly and bumped into him. She blushed and looked pretty with black hair. It wasn't Lana, but Clark felt she was pretty like Lana had been. Just she looked different.

"Excuse me," she said in a Russian accent and walked away.

Clark smiled. Maybe Gotham wasn't so bad. He went into the hotel and ordered his room and the bellhop came out to take his bag to his room. But his wallet was gone when he went to pay the desk clerk and he had no money. He patted his pockets, and remembered the Russian woman. "I've been pick-pocketed!"

"Welcome to Gotham City," said the desk clerk.

Clark runs outside to look around, in one direction and the other. He doesn't see her, but he jogs in the direction he saw her walk in, and sees her a block away already running. "She must have super-pick-pocketing skills," he thought as he ran after her.

When he got to where she had been, she was gone.

"This is happening too much," he said, spinning around on the spot looking down the streets at the intersection. His x-ray vision showed nothing inside the buildings but people doing their business and he gave up. He would have to call the Daily Planet and ask for more money or his pay early.

"Excuse me, friend," said a voice behind him, and Clark turned again and saw a young man about his age standing before him, in a nice shirt and longs with immaculately combed dark hair and confident eyes (he looks like Zac Efron with black hair). "You look lost?"

"I've just been pick-pocketed," Clark said feeling stupid. How did he let his happen?

"I see. Are you in town long?"

"I am here investigating the murders that have been happening in Gotham City."

"Oh!" the young man's eyebrows shot up in interest and he gave an easy smile. "Are you a detective?"

"Not likely," Clark said, tilting his head slightly and giving the young man an intense stare from narrowed eyes. "I am a reporter for the Daily Planet. I've been asked to solve the murders for a story."

The young man seemed slightly disinterested but nodded. "Please let me cover your expenses until the police can find your money. But I think your wallet will be long gone now. Gotham isn't a nice city like Metropolis."

"You've been there?"

"I have," the young man nodded and held out his hand. "I own Met U and other things. My name is Bruce Wayne." Clark looked at him blankly. "Richest young man in America?"

"Oh! That Bruce Wayne!" The philanthropist, which means he gave money away to charity and other people. "I didn't recognise you without the suit."

Bruce nodded. "I always do magazine covers in my suit. But when I'm not in the boardroom I dress down a little. Move amongst the people. I hear all sorts of things that help me."

"Like what?"

Bruce nodded at the building behind Clark. "Like this building is for sale. It's a housing apartment block for poor people who have little money but the people running it can no longer afford to do so, so I'm going to buy it and let out the apartments to the needy cheaply. It's poor people like this that will rebuild Gotham City in the future into a new economy. If they leave we can't educate people and move them forward in life and they don't get out of the vicious circle of having no money."

"You come across as a pretty good guy," Clark said shaking Bruce's hand.

"I do what I can. But I always want to do more." Bruce gestured back to the hotel. "I will cover your rooms and food and expenses."

"Why would you do this?"

Bruce gestured at the city around him, taking in the dirty streets and aged cars. "Gotham has been good to me. I want to return the goodness to Gotham. For that I need Gotham to reinvent itself. Get some life back and stop fearing the night. Too many of the wrong people come here to commit great wrong-doings and too many innocent people are hurt." Bruce Wayne's face took on a darker look and he almost scowled. "I lost family here when I was a boy. I don't want anyone else to lose their family like I did."

"I heard about that. A gun fight."

"My parents took me to see Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and came out, and got shot. I was lucky and survived, but I didn't want anyone else to lose their parents. Once I had control of my family's money I started the Wayne Foundation, which I use to give back to Gotham's less fortunate communities."

"You're a hero," Clark said and meant it. Bruce Wayne was a great man, and only 24 like Clark. "But is Gotham safe now?"

Bruce's face took on a significant expression again and smiled but Clark as a trained reporter saw the tension in Bruce's eyes and the tightening of his mouth. Clark realised Bruce worked out as he even heard his chest muscles shift under his shirt. "The police are doing the best they can but Gotham people need to rise up against the fear and take the nights back."

"I hope you succeed," Clark said and meant it. "If I can help as a reporter in any way..."

"Your being here will help," Bruce said, smiling for real now. "Write a good story. Write a story about the people who are working to make this place great."

"People like... this Bat-man?"

"Where did you hear that name?"

"The police were talking about it back at the crime scene."

"The Bat-man... I like it. It fits." Bruce looked up at Clark from deep thought. "It fits his bat motif, doesn't it?"

"What drives a man to spray bats on walls?"

"I heard of a man in Metropolis who sprays big S's on walls. Maybe they're not too different. Anyway, let's get your room."

* * *

That night, Clark put on the costume of The Blur, the identity he went under in Metropolis last year and went out across the Gotham streets. A large screen TV against a building showed Bruce Wayne accepting a humanitarium award at the UN for his work with the poor. Clark heard someone laugh in the distance.

In a blur, he ran towards the laugh, but found another body of a man with a big smile on his face. He also had something in his hands. A card from a playing card deck. Clark took it and looked at it – a Joker. But what did this mean?

"What are you doing in Gotham?" It was the man with the gravelly voice, and Clark turned, making sure to keep his face in shadow. The other man had a cloth mask on. Clark looked using his x-ray vision but the face must have been lead lined because he couldn't see through it.

"I could ask the same question about you," Clark replied. "You killed those men earlier today."

"I didn't kill those men, and you know it." The man's hand snapped up and pointed at the card. "It's a Joker, right?"

"How did you know if you didn't put it there?"

"Because he leaves that card everywhere he kills someone," the man replied.

"Who are you?"

"I am... The Batman." Batman drew himself up, but still Clark realised he wasn't quite as tall as Clark. "What are you doing here?"

"People are being killed. I should be here to stop them."

"This is my city. My town. My territory. I'll take care of this." He stepped forward and tried to take the card, but Clark refused to let it go.

"He killed people on my watch."

"Let it go. Go home and rest, watch cartoons, sleep. Gotham is my town. My city. I'll protect it from the likes of this maniac. I've got this."

Clark moved so fast the other man didn't know he'd moved so he was standing behind Batman. He stood on the man's trench coat tail. "You know, capes are bad for superheroes. They get you in all sorts of trouble."

"Superheroes, ha! There's no such thing."

"Then how did I move so fast?"

"Maybe you were bitten by a radioactive cheetah." Batman spun around and the trench coat dropped to the ground without him in it. He grabbed something from his belt and wrapped his fingers around it. "I didn't want to do this but you leave me no choice." Batman punched Clark in the mouth.

Clark didn't expect the punch to hurt, but it did and his teeth shook as Batman pulled his fist back and kicked him in the crotch. Batman opened his fingers and Clark saw something green and he dropped to the ground in pain. "I did research and found the Blur was always never around these green rocks. I figure there was a reason."

Clark struggled on the ground but is powerless. "You... you don't know what you're doing. The Joker needs to be taken down by both of us."

"Sure, Blur, let's get right on it." Batman said sarcastically and grabbed his coat and put it on before dramatically turning and disappearing into the dark night.

"Wait!" Clark called reaching for Batman, but Batman walked off arrogantly before vanishing. Clark stood up not hurting now the meteor rocks was gone. "That arrogant fool," Clark thought aloud. He started after Batman but didn't know where he'd gone. He got lost quickly in the gothic architecture and found himself in Crime Alley.

"Waaaark!" said a little man in a suit with a white undershirt and monocle and umbrella. "What do we have here?"

"I'm looking for Batman. I think he went this way."

The little man chewed on a cigarette. "For $50 I can tell you where he is."

"Nevermind. I'll find him myself." Clark ran on, and the little man held on to his top hat and "Waaark!"ed again.

But Clark found nothing until he heard a laugh again much closer this time. He ran to it and found Batman tied up upside down over a boiling pool of water with sharks in it leaping out because of the hot water to bite at Batman. The rope was tied to a pulley system that was linked across eight pulleys around the warehouse the Joker was in to be tied to a bolt on the floor that held a chair down with a young girl tied in it and an old man across from it with a Gotham City Police Department jacket and a white moustache with a gun.

"Hahahaha Commissioner!" Joker laughed. "If you don't shoot that rope at exactly the last moment and kill Batman, your daughter will die when the bomb tied to the back of her chair explodes! Which will also kill you and Batman!"

"Don't shoot, Commissioner!" Batman yelled from his vantage point. "I've got this!"

"Hahahaha!" said the Joker before he ran off. Clark was torn: he could run after Joker or he could save the girl in front of him, and maybe even Batman. The Commissioner raised his gun and pointed at the rope.

"Sorry Batman, but this is my daughter Barbara. She's my only daughter and I can't let her die."

Batman struggled with his ropes and cut them, falling towards the boiling shark tank. One leaped up and bit at him and he kicked it in the teeth! Another he kicked in the blowhole and it fell back into the boiling water and died as it was cooked. A third he chopped in the back with a karate chop and the last one he wrapped his legs around and rode it like a bull in and out of the boiling water until he pointed it at Barbara's chair and managed to get the shark to bite the bomb off. Batman kicked it back into the boiling water tank, and he walked out of the warehouse with the Commissioner and Barbara as it exploded behind them in slow motion.

Barbara looked up at Batman with wide eyes. "I want to grow up to be just like you."

"That's a talk we can have later, young lady," the Commissioner said before shaking Batman's hand. "This is the first time we've met. My name is James Gordon but you can call me Commissioner Gordon."

"I'm Batman," Batman said before grabbing a gun off his belt and shooting it into the air. He disappeared into the knight sky. Clark watched with an open mouth. He wasn't flying! He didn't really have Bat-powers!

"That's a pity, I would have liked to talk to him about the Joker and sees what he knows," the Commissioner said thoughtfully fingering his chin thoughtfully. "Well, Barbara, I had better see you home."

"Yes dad," Barbara said rolling her eyes.

Clark followed Batman across the rooftops until Batman jumped down and when Clark caught up Batman was hoping into a black car with tail fins like a car from the 60s. It was a sports car with black paint and a little yellow bat symbol painted on the hood. It sped off and Clark followed but the car was too fast for him to catch up. It disappeared around the corner and when Clark got there there was nothing because the road was a dead end that ended in a cliff. Clark sighed and looked frustrated. He wanted to know more about Batman and the Joker. How did they know each other? Why was Joker killing people? Who was Batman?

"Who's the Batman?" asked Joker from a nearby tv screen. "Why I bet all of Gotham would like to know! I know who the Batman is, and I'll unveil his secret identity later today! Hahahahaha!" The tv screen went back to news and the news anchors looked confused.

"Well Jill, that was the Joker on tv."

"Yes David, and it looks like we'll have some more news for you later today Gotham! The identity of Batman!"

Clark turned the tv off and turned back to face the cliff. Maybe the car went straight up it? Clark ran up the cliff face and looked around but didn't see a car. He did see a big mansion though with all the lights on. He walked over and saw a big sign out the front saying it was "Wayne Manor". This must be where Bruce Wayne lived! Clark quickly stripped out of his Blur clothes and looked around and went inside the manor grounds and found himself in the garden. He quickly got out of the garden and onto the drive way and walked to the door. He rang the doorbell and a Butler answered the door.

"Yes?" said the butler.

"Hi. My name's Clark Kent. I wanted to know if Bruce Wayne was around?"

"Why do you want to see him?"

"To thank him for paying for the hotel room. I'm a reporter from Metropolis and I wanted to know if I could ask Bruce some more things about life in Gotham City." Clark gestured back at the city in the far distance.

"Who is it Alfred?" asked Bruce from inside. He was walking around in a pair of tight shorts and wet from a shower, rubbing at his hair with a towel. "Oh, Clark Kent right? I remember you. Come in. Sit down. Let me get some clothes and we can talk."

"Is this another of your overnight stays, Bruce?"

"No Alfred I will be going back to the hotel later."

"Very good Mister Kent." Alfred went back inside and Clark came in and shut the door. It was a cold and stormy night outside.

* * *

Across the city Joker prowled around a rooftop looking angry. "Batman! He always spoils my fun! He should be dead a dozen times over now but he's never dead! How can I beat him?"

"Waaark!" said the little man from before stepping onto the rooftop from the stairs.

"What do you want, you funny little man?"

"My name is Penguin, see, and I think we might have something in common."

"What would that be?"

"We hate Batman and want to see him dead."

Joker looked at the Penguin. "Why do you hate him? He's so deliciously funny!"

"I'm a gangster and information person and he has been beating up all my gangsters."

"Joker has also been killing them," said a Russian woman's voice from above. Joker and Penguin looked up and saw a young woman in a tight black spandex bodysuit that fitted her body like a glove with big stompy boots.

"But Joker's a bad guy and that's expected. We call that a turf war." Penguin puffed on his cigarette. "But Batman is like a cop, see, and cops are the natural enemy of gangsters, so I'll team up with Joker to see Batman dead."

"When is a Batman not like a Bat?" asked another voice from the staircase. A man in a green bowler hat stood there preening and leaning on a cane with a silver tip. "When he's been hit with a baseball bat!"

"Who invited you?" asked Penguin.

"Hahahahaha!" laughed Joker, "that was really good! Who are you?"

"I'm Edward Nigma, or E. Nigma, or The Riddler." He tipped his hat to Catwoman above him. "When is a cat in trouble?"

"When?" Catwoman purred.

"When it's a cat-astrophe!"

"Hahahaha!"

"That's not funny," said Penguin, puffing on his cigarette angry. "We need a plan to kill Batman and the Blur."

"How do you know the Blur is in Gotham?" The Riddler asked. "Because nothing looks sharp!" Joker laughed again and Catwoman rolled her eyes.

"I have people to steal and fleece, can we get on with it?"

Penguin nodded. "Waaark! All four of us hate Batman, so we need to get him. Here's what I think we should do..."

* * *

"And that's the end of my plan to revitalise Gotham City," Bruce said where he sat next to Clark on the couch. "Basically make the city modern and get jobs through construction, house people in cheap but decent housing and educate people in free education which my company will pay for."

"It's a great plan Bruce," Clark said and meant it. "I want you to know I am writing all this down for the Daily Planet." He turned his recording device off and stood up. "Well, we've talked all night and it's day time outside now, I should go back and get some sleep."

Bruce pointed at a doorway. "I was going to do some training. Did you want to join me? You look like you hit the gym."

"You have a very keen eye."

Bruce nodded. "I try to keep my eye on what's important." He continued as he pumped weights in the gym, "And what's important is a reporter who will write good things about my town. Too many write about Gotham as a hopeless case and that it should be wiped off the map but I think Gotham is a beautiful town in need of love and attention. In fact –"

"Excuse me sir but you have a meeting to attend shortly," said Alfred.

"Oh. Please excuse me Clark, I must go," said Bruce.

"That's quite all right," said Clark as he left. Outside the sun was shining and birds were singing happily in the trees as Clark headed back towards his hotel where he phoned the Daily Planet and sent his new story in.

His boss called back and yelled at him for not covering the murders. "But I am! We haven't found who has murdered them yet but I think it was the Joker. Or maybe Batman but I think he's a good guy."

"Why do you think that, Kent?"

"I think that Batman might be good because..." Clark's voice trailed off as he realised Batman had done nothing to gain his trust. "I'll get back to you. It's almost night time and Batman comes out at night. I'll go find him."

"You do that Kent! And get an exclusive that will put the Planet on top of the other newspapers like the Daily Bugle and National Inquisitor."

"I'll do that Chief." Clark hung up the phone and looked outside at the darkening sky. It was a dark and stormy night as they always seemed to be in Gotham and it was a good time for the Blur to make an appearance.

He stepped outside but before he could change into his Blur costume he stumbled across the Russian woman who had stolen his wallet. "Excuse me," Clark said, "You stole my wallet and I want it back."

The Russian woman looked shocked. "I would never do such a thing comrade! I am no thief."

"You stole my wallet," Clark repeats and reaches out to grab her hand. Her wrist slips from his grasp as he reaches for her and she moves backwards.

"Help, I'm being attacked!"

Joker popped out of a doorway. "Hahaha I will save you!" he reached for Clark's hand and gave him a shock from a joy buzzer thing on his palm. Clark realised he should fall unconscious and fell to the ground as if he had passed out. The Russian woman looked at Clark in concerned horror but smiled as he shut his eyes. "Now to move him to a hilarious location," Joker said.

Clark felt the woman and Joker pull him across town by his feet until they reached a warehouse on the outside of town at the docks. He heard a fog horn in the fog at sea and heard seagulls. He also heard sailors swearing and smelt salt water. Joker picked him up and moved him into a warehouse and tied him to a big block of wood before taking the blindfold off so Clark could see again. "Hahaha this is my latest and greatest prank. Batman will have to rescue you and to do that he needs to hit this bit down here with a hammer until the plug bit goes up and rings the bell. But the plug has a chainsaw attached to it which will cut through you as well as the ropes holding you up there."

A woman in black spandex and big boots walked in and kissed Joker, who blushed under his white skin. "Ahh comrade you are so deliciously cat-like."

"Because of my soft ears?"

"Because you play with your food." Catwoman walked off into the darkness, swinging her backside as she slinked away. Behind Clark, he could hear two more people with his super-hearing. One was the little man from before and the other he had never smelt before.

"Riddler you need to tell Batman we have a man from Metropolis," Joker said.

"How would I do that?" Riddler asked.

"I don't know, shine a big light up in the sky with a bat symbol on it," Joker said.

"Weren't you going to reveal Batman's identity on tv?" Clark asked from his deathtrap.

"Hahaha yes I still am. Now go Riddle and get Batman."

"Rightio chum," said Riddler who walked off rubbing his chin with his finger. "A light with a bat symbol, hmmm."

Catwoman watched him go from the shadows. "Meeeow. He has buns of steel."

Clark had to admit Riddler's costume was tight and leaves nothing to the imagination.

"I'm here Joker!" announced Batman five minutes later as he burst in through the door. "I've come to stop you and save the victim."

Clark didn't move to reveal his secret identity as a kryptonian. Instead he watched Batman as he punched a nearby thug in the stomach. Suddenly as Joker stepped backwards two dozen gangsters burst out of the walls! They were fake walls and the fake wood flew everywhere peppering Clark with sawdust and bits of fake wood chips but the guns the gangsters held were real and they shot at Batman who managed to dodge every bullet. Two goons shot themselves and died when they shot at each other and Batman dodged. Penguin shot at Batman also but Batman reflected the bullet with his glove which was bulletproof thankfully. Penguin squawked and grabbed his umbrella and sprayed some gas in a mist at Batman but he had pulled a facemask off his belt and was breathing easy through that. He punched Penguin in the face and then kicked him in the feet to make him fall over where he rolled around grabbing his ankles. "Ow my ankles!"

Batman rolled over one bad guy and kicked another in the chest before a gangster shot at him and missed. "Too bad, you lose." Batman kicked him in the stomach and the gangster fell over himself and dropped the gun.

Joker picked it up and wasn't scared of Batman, he was laughing as he sprayed bullets around the dark detective. "Riddler must have done his job well," Joker laughed and pointed at Clark. "Now you have thirty seconds to save this man or he will die and you will to. You're standing on explosives that will go off if you move! But if you don't move you can't get away when you hit the detonator that will send the ringer thing up the pole and free the man and you will both die. But if you free him you will die but he will live. What choice do you have, hero?"

"I'm no hero, I'm Batman," said Batman as he swings at the pad at the bottom of the pole. "And I don't need thirty seconds, I only need five. And I don't need to save him." His hammer touched the pad and the ringer shot up the pole with the chainsaw starting. As it shot between Clark's legs it exploded into bits of metal with a whirr from the chainsaw and then his ropes were free. "Because you captured the Blur from Metropolis City and now you're going to wish you had captured someone who was weaker and not a real superhero."

Clark fell to the floor and started punching gangsters in slow motion. Joker went to punch him, but Clark punched him first and Joker flew into the wall and knocked himself out with a giggle. Penguin got up and waved a knife around but Clark ran to him really fast and knocked the knife from his hand and punched his nose breaking it and making it look like a beak. Penguin passed out with blood exploding from his nose and getting all over the floor.

"There's one other Batman," Clark said looking around for Catwoman.

"She's on my side Clark," said Batman as Catwoman leaned on his shoulder purring and stroking his chest.

"I guess it's true what they say: Bruce Wayne takes all the pretty girls."

The two heroes looked at each other, regarding the other person with interest.

"When did you know?" said Batman.

"I heard your chest muscles in the gym and realised that sounded like a sound I heard on the rooftop at the start in Gotham. I didn't realise it at the time we first met in the street but I did after last night. When did you know I was the Blur?"

Batman smiled. "Before I knew you were in Gotham. I know everything. I learn everything I can and look for information and when I heard about a superhero in Metropolis that wasn't the old Justice League I went looking for all the pictures and stories I could and placed them all back to you in Smallville and then Metropolis."

"And Catwoman is with you?"

"Yes," said the woman without a Russian accent. "Here is your wallet. Batman asked me to help him get you involved so we could get close to Joker. And now Batman has him in custody and the police can arrest him and this will all be over."

"Did you really know I was indestructible when you started that chainsaw?"

"I figured you would move out of the way."

"I don't always do what people think I'm going to do."

"You said I was a hero Clark and a good man. I do what needs to be done. Gotham is not Metropolis and it is a darker city than Metropolis and I am the hero it deserves to have to clean up these streets of crime. You are a shining bright hero of light who will stand above us all and show the world we are unable to be defeated and will stamp out bad people everywhere."

"My father doesn't think so," Clark said bitterly.

"I know everything, and I know this to be true," said Batman seriously. "You will be a great hero."

* * *

The next morning Bruce and Clark and Selina stood at the airport waiting for a plane. Bruce and Selina held hands while Clark stood by himself facing them as they talked about Gotham some more.

"I mean it Clark," said Bruce. "You will rise to heights the rest of us mere mortals can only dream of."

"And you will have the meteor rocks in case I slip up and fall?"

"I am always prepared for anything," said Clark with his face in shadow and his voice gravelly. Selina laughed.

"And how did Joker not know you were giving information to Batman who was disguised as the Riddler?" Clark asked.

"I have a cute butt in my costume for a reason," Selina said. Bruce let go of her hand and gave Clark a hug and slapped his back.

"Take care Clark. Your future is going to be really super, man."

Clark looked around. Already the airport seemed cleaner with Bruce Wayne's help. "I think we'll be seeing more of each other in the future. I can feel it."

Clark got on his plane and flew home where he wrote the story of Gotham like he promised Bruce and also put some good things in about Batman. Clark's boss was happy with the story and ran it in the Daily Planet but then there was news about a radio person who was writing a book about how the world didn't need superheroes, and Clark was asked to go see this man talk. He was surprised it was the person Cat Grant had told him about a few days ago when he had saved her life and she gave him the idea for his new Blur costume but a job was a job and he went down.

On the street outside as Clark pondered how wrong the man was, he didn't hear Lois arrive from Egypt behind him, staring at his back lovingly...

THE END


End file.
